The present invention generally relates to procedures, implantable wireless sensing devices, and sensor assemblies suitable for monitoring physiological parameters within living bodies.
According to one aspect of the invention, a sensor assembly includes a sensing device comprising a housing having at least one internal cavity, a transducer and electrical circuitry within the at least one internal cavity, and an antenna that is within the at least one internal cavity or outside the housing. The transducer is located at a proximal end of the housing opposite a distal end of the housing. The sensor assembly further includes a housing portion in which the transducer, the electrical circuitry, and the antenna are not located, and anchoring means for securing the sensing device within a living body. The housing portion is separately formed and directly attached to a distal end of the housing, or is integrally formed as a discrete region of the housing at the distal end thereof. The anchor means surrounds a coupling means of the housing portion but does not surround the transducer or the antenna of the sensing device so that a metal portion of the anchor means is sufficiently remote from the transducer and the antenna to not interfere with operations thereof.
Other aspects of the invention include methods of using the sensor assembly to sense a physiological parameter of a living being and as a closure or occluder device.
Other aspects and advantages of this invention will be better appreciated from the following detailed description.